The Truth About The French Miners’ Strike - CGT

After the Liberation of he country, the General
Confederation of Labour, being concerned both with the interests of the
working-class and with the general interest of the country, launched an appeal
for increased production.

This appeal was understood by the workers and output rapidly
reached a level, higher than pre-war.

Any Government having a sense of national interest and
knowing that the recovery of French economy depended, above all, on the efforts
of the working-class, would have improved the living conditions of the workers,
since it was by their efforts that the country’s output had increased.

Nothing has been done in this respect: quite the contrary.
For 18 months, our rulers have systematically carried out an anti-working class
policy.

a)They have reduced the purchasing power of wages
by nearly 50%, by means of a deliberate and systematic increase of prices,
which could only profit – and did only profit – the French capitalists, and by
an unjustified and improper freezing of wages.
The situation appears clearly from a study of the following indices based on
100 in 1938 :

Retail Prices ………1.870
Wages ………………1.000
Capitalist Profits..3.000

b)To all demands put forward, the answer was :
“No”. Each time the workers have declared a strike – the ultimate weapon at
their command in defence of their rights – the Government attempted to break
the strike by force.

It has not hesitated to use- in defiance of the Constitution – police and
military forces, allowing them the use of tear-gas, grenades, rifles and
machine guns against unarmed strikers who only wished to improve the living
conditions of their families, by defending demands, the legitimacy of which
nobody has contested, nor contests.

c)They have continually attempted to misrepresent
the economic character of the worker’s action, and tried to sow the idea in the
public mind, that the unrest had a strictly political character. No honest and
well informed person can to-day be taken in by this disgraceful stratagem.

d)They have attempted -and they are attempting –
to violate two social achievements : nationalisations and Social Security.

e)It is to-day proven that the Government has
carried out a policy of the surrender of national independence, a policy which
gives birth to and allows the spread of unemployment (a paradoxical situation
in a country where there is so much to be done) a policy which risks leading us
towards the worst of experiences.

Everything in the Government’s policy is directed towards
the same end.

In order to follow deliberately and with impunity the road
of social regression, and to silence the powerful voice of the people, which
rises vigorously to assert the truth, and to fight against insecurity and
misery, the Government thinks it is necessary, first to master the working
class, then to destroy or weaken its organisations. This explains the desire to
encourage demands, to ferment strikes and to spread lies, so as to justify the
use of force and the vote by Parliament of particularly iniquitous and
undeniably anti-constitutional special laws.

This brief study giving an idea of the social atmosphere in
France, at the same time underlines the responsibility of the Government and
permits a better understanding of the reason for the thousands of strikes which
have broken out within the last year and amongst which have broken out within
the last year and amongst which the miners’ strike kas revealed itself as
particularly important.

The French miners, who heroically led the struggle against
the Nazi invaders, have been since the Liberation of the country the best
artisans of French production recovery. They have, with courage and tenacity
worth of praise, sustained an 8 weeks’ strike in order to defend their demands.
They upheld it, in spite of the repressive measures of a Government which has
thoroughly discredited itself in the eyes of the world opinion, and in spite of
police excesses which have revolted the human conscience.

The purpose of this pamphlet is to make known
the truth about the miners’ strike.

French Miners’

Tragic Conditions

Lack of Security in
the Mines

The lack of security and hygiene at places of work, caused
by the reckless policy of the Government, which has taken on a real aspect of
provocation towards the mineworkers was responsible during these last few
months for several catastrpohes, notably at Petite-Rouselle,
Courrieres and Lievin.

The catastrophe at Petite-Rosselle,
on January 10th, 194, caused the death of 25 miners and severely
injured 25 others.

It could have been avoided, had not the Management
systematically ignored the miner’s shop steward reports, warning of the
existence of fire-damp. The day before the accident occurred, the shot-firer
refused to fire shots, fearing the fire-damp which a few days previously had
resulted in his being confined to bed through gas poisoning.

The catastrophe of Courrieres,
on April 19th, 1948, was responsible for the death of 16 workers
and the severe injury of 30 others.

The responsibility of the management was clearly established
and can be summed up as follows :

1.Dust was not evacuated :

2.No means of drawing off dust existed in the
surface installations;

3.The tipping devices were not separated from the
pit entrances by a wooden partition, as the regulations laid down;

4.Lack of maintenance of the compressors and the
air pipes in the pits.

These are the results of the policy pursued by the Minister
of Industry and Trade, Robert Lacoste, a policy of developing production at
whatever cost, and of diminishing production costs, all at the expense of
security.

Everywhere and at all times, the miners’ shop stewards drew
the attention of the Managements to the insufficiency of security measures.
Because their warnings were intentionally not taken into consideration and
because the necessary security measures were reduced (tests fir fire-damp made
every week instead of every day, etc.) since the beginning of the year in the
coal basins of Nord and Pas de Calais alone, out of a total od 126.500
underground workers, there have been 90 killed.
1.974 injured and permanently
incapacitated, 98.400 slightly
injured and 3.000 cases of silicosis.

At Carmaux and Alibi pits, from January to August 1948,
out of a total of 4.500 underground workers, there have been 4 killed and 30 cases of silicosis. There were 1.045 accidents causing slight injuries and 19 cases of permanent incapacity.

Wages Paid to Mineworkers

The Government, through the Minister of Industry and Trade,
Lacoste, has asserted in the National Assembly, that the wages paid to miners
are higher than those of the engineering workers od the Paris Region, since
they are calculated on the basis of engineering wages, plus certain bonuses. In
stating this, the Minister was in theory referring to the Miners’ Charter which
as a matter of fact, he violates and induces his agents to violate daily.

He asserted, in regard to underground workers, that 5.7%
have a basic wage of 14.120 frs per month, or 17.070 frs, taking into
consideration various advantages, and 24.640 frs for workers with two children.
In addition he asserted that the maximum wages earned by underground hewers and
strippers, that is to say 30.2% of the total manpower, is 26.500 frs and 29.000
frs, and if the various advantages are taken into consideration, 36.570 frs per
month for workers with children.

These statements are far from expressing the truth.
At the present time, the average wages
actually paid for an 8 hour day are the following :
In a region with 5% zonal reduction [1]:

These figures are given for the region enjoying the best
conditions and include a 10% attendance bonus, which is not granted to a worker
absent from work during the fortnight.

These are gross wages
: to establish the net wage, a 10% reduction has to be made for social security
contributions, which in other terms means that :

160.000 underground and surface workers earn between 456 and 594 frs per day : Thus 160.000 workers earn less than the minimum wage :

17.000 surface workers earn between 630 frs and 725 frs per
day :

122.000 underground workers earn between 735 and 949 frs per
day.

Is it necessary to point out the particularly difficult
nature of the miners’ work? Is it necessary to emphasize the danger’s he faces
every day ? Certainly not.

Nevertheless, it is useful to specify that, in the pits, the
output is related to various factors, independent of the workers will, such as
the dimension of the seams, and the rate at which pit props and material for
pushing forward the roads is supplied. So as to take into consideration all of
these particular difficulties, the Miners’ Charter provided for a guaranteed
minimum wage.

The Lacoste Circular

Of September 13th, 1947

Since the application of the terms of the circular issued by
Lacoste, on September 13th, 1947, the guaranteed minimum wage
provided for by the Miners’ Charter, is no longer applied. Under the pretext of
fighting against the fall in individual output, it permits the most shameful
exploitation of the miners in the difficult coal seams.

In accordance with the provisions of this circular, certain
workers have been paid less than 150 frs per day. At Escarpelle, in the Nord
district, the best workers, hindered by various working difficulties, have
received only 200 francs per day.

By a court-decision on June 3rd, 1948, the
justice of the Peace at Carvin, declared the Lacoste circular illegal.

In spite of this
decision, Lacoste has not cancelled it.

All these anti-labour measures, which have been directed
against the miners, since May 1947, by the Minister Lacoste, compelled the
National Federation of Mineworkers to protest and to insist that a new policy
should be developed by the Minister concerned.

From the 20th January, until the 25th
August 1948, the Federation has 12 times contacted the Minister of Industry and
Trade, as well as the various Prime Ministers and the President of the
Republic, so as to urge the Government to carry out the following measures :

a)Cancellation of Lacoste’s circular of September 13th, 1947, declared
illegal by a decision of the Justice of the Peace of Carvin, on the 3th of June, and which undermines the guaranteed
minimum wage.

b)Increase of miners wages based on the changes in
the cost of living (minimum wage and sliding scale).

c)Ending of methods of exploitation which by
disregarding elementary security and hygiene measures, were responsible for
various catastrophes since the beginning of the year.

The delays and stratagems, during 8 months, in order to
reject these just demands, have proved the Government’s intention to follow a
systematically hostile policy towards the miners’ rights.

In the month of September 1948, the situation was worsened
still more by 3 Lacoste’s decrees.

LACOSTE DECREES

A first decree lays
down the principle of a 10% reduction
in the surface manpower.

During two interviews with the Minister Lacoste, on the 24th
and 29th of Sept. the National Federation of Mineworkers, agreed to
the principle of such a reduction. Moreover, the Miners suggested to the
Minister a 20% reduction in that manpower (for the good reason that the office
and managements are a shelter for hangers-on and incapables placed there
because of political favouritism by Ministries and Mine Managements), subject
to the Minister promising, not to use the decree for political aims, that is to
say for dismissing any worker whose opinion might not appeal to the Management.

Lacoste refused to give this promise, thus proving that this
reduction of manpower was only a pretext to endorse and reinforce the arbitrary
methods which are tending to become established in the mines.

He asserted that this decree was without importance;
reduction of manpower could be easily achieved thanks to the withdrawal of
German prisoners of war and miners placed on the retiral list. If that were
true, no decree was necessary.

A second decree with 3 main points stipulated :

a)The division of mineworkers into two categories:
- On the one hand, the established workers in mining companies who benefit from
the Miners’ Charter and,
- On the other hand, the workers in mining companies, who contrary to the
express provisions of the Charter only become established after a compulsory
period of probation of 6 months, appreciation of which is entirely subjected to
the Management’s opinion.

b)The re-establishment of suspensions and the
surrender of control by Joint Committees in regard to all penalties, henceforth
to be decided upon by the Management and immediately applicable.

c)The discharging of any worker who has been
absent from work for 6 days running without justification, or who accumulates
12 days of unjustified absence in 6 months.

The first two points of this decree are unacceptable to the
workers, because they violate the Miners’ Charter and submit mineworkers to the
arbitrary decisions of the Management. Moreover, the re-establishment of
workers suspensions revives the Vichy regime, since this measure, suppressed in
1936 was re-established by the Nazis in 1940, and suppressed in 1944.

As to the last point of the decree, it has to be linked with
a third decree, issued on the same day and which takes away from the Social
Security bodies, the administration of safety at work and Workmen’s
Compensation, as well as occupational diseases.

Thus, the Government’s intention clearly appears: it consists
of giving back to managements of nationalised industries, the administration of
these risks and of submitting the appreciation of whether a sick or injured
worker is cured, no longer to the Social Security health services, but to
doctors appointed by the Managements and placed under their direct influence.

All these decrees aim at applying discrimination among the
workers and constitute a war instrument in the hands of the Management,
specially invented for use against the worker’s organisations and against the
C.G.T’s trade union delegates and leaders, elected by the miners.

These decrees were issued on September 18th.

As the Minister
Lacoste has himself cynically acknowledged to the representatives of the
National Federation of Mineworkers, the mineworkers could not, in any way,
accept these decrees. The Government, above all, aimed at creating discontent
among miners, to compel them to launch a strike, a strike which they thought
could be broken by means of savage repression.

MINEWORKERS DEMANDS

It was in these circumstances that the National Federation
of Mineworkers established the list of its main demands:

1.Cancellation of the Government decrees which,
under the pretext of making economies, violate the Miners’ Charter and the
regulation of the Social Security system; cancellation of the Government
circular of September 18th, which in fact suppresses the guaranteed
minimum wage.

2.Extension of the powers of shop stewards so as
to ensure, at their maximum, security and hygiene in the mines.

3.Increase of wages, salaries and pensions with a
minimum wage of 14.300 francs per month and establishment of a sliding scale
for wage’s whenever there is an increase in the cost of living.

4.Respect for the laws on the nationalisation of
mines.

5.Effective fight against the high cost of living.

STRIKE VOTE

In refusing to examine these just demands, to which he
himself gave rise, the Minister Lacoste used dilatory means aimed at
exasperating the miners.

The National Federation of Mineworkers then decided on the
26th September last, to proceed to a wide consultation amongst the
miners, on the question of an unlimited general strike for the satisfaction of
the demands mentioned above.

The general referendum, embracing all the workers in the
mines, and which took place between the 25th and the 30th
of September 1948, gave the following results:

Total number of workers……………………………………………….. 317,506
Total present at work …………………………………………………….259,204
Total voting …………………………………………………………………...244,322

Thus, 92% of those present at work took part in the vote.
89% of those who voted expressed themselves in favour of the strike. The
difference between the total number of worker’s and the total present at work
is explained by the number of prisoners of war, as well as the number of those
sick, injured, absent on holiday, etc., these latter constituting about 22% of
the total.

In the Moselle, 80% of the miners, by free and secret ballot, expressed themselves in favour of the
strike.

The Government Attitude

Throughout the country, the Government policy was rapidly
driving the workers to distress.

The Minister of Industry and Trade, Lacoste, by means that
he knew workers could not accept, worsened the situation of the miners.

The miners could either submit and hence accept difficulties
in their homes, insecurity, unhealthy conditions and arbitrary management in
the mines, or protest by means of striking.

They chose to strike.

In order to break the strike, the Government used Jules
Moch, Minister of Interior. The latter employed all means to achieve his ends:
violent police repression, use of troops and war material, campaigns of slanders
and lies, arbitrary arrests, pressure exercised on magistrates so that the
sentences pronounced should be increased, suppression of family allowances,
etc.

From there on, the miners not only fought for the defence of
their demands but also for the defence od the right to strike, written into the
Constitution, and which the Government is violating.

POLCE VIOLENCE AND USE OF THE ARMY

On the night of the 3rd – 4th October,
a few hours before the beginning of the strike, police forces occupied the coal
pits in Moselle. The Prime Minister himself on November, 23rd,
admitted this during the National Assembly debates.

In fact, the use of police and armed forces, spread rapidly
to other coal basins, and Jules Moch could proudly give himself the shameful
appearance of a chief of staff preparing plans for attack against the enemy.

This enemy was the people of France, artisans of the
country’s recovery.

Police provocations and brutalities began immediately.

They continued without any too severe consequences until the
8th October, when finally the Government’s deliberate policy of
violence lead to the murder of the miner Jansek.

Jansek was taking part in a procession of demonstrators
which was held by a C.RS.[2]
barrage. The C.R.S. met them with gun-butts and tear gas grenades. Struck down
by a butt blow on the head. Jansek, hardly up again on his feet, was mortally
wounded by a second blow.

Soon, methods borrowed
from the Nazis were used against arrested miners.

On the 14th October, at Petite Rosselle, the miner P.Adam was tied to a tree and beaten
until he bled.
At Faulquemont, on the 20th
October, 4 workers, tied in pairs, back to back, were thrashed until they bled.
On the 5th November, at Auchel,
the Police Superintendent was himself a victim of C.R.S. brutalities.
Twelve miners were wounded by drunken C.R.S.
The police also broke into the home of miner Trisset. He was so badly treated
that he fainted several times; each time he was doused with cold water, brought
to, and finally thrown out in the street.

At Greasque (Bouches-du-Rhone) the
C.R.S. fired upon a miner arrested while
picketing; they also aimed at a miner who was working in his garden and at his
daughter who was holding her baby in her arms.

At Pecquencourt, the
C.R.S. used the hostage system, arresting a little girl named Moniot aged 6,
took her to Lemay pit, and tried to force her to say her father had broken the
windows of “black-legs”.

At the same time, so as to force the workers to resume work,
the police force attempted to institute a real terror regime, especially aimed
against the miners’ families and the trade unionists.

At FORBACH, on
October 18t, a policeman boxed the cars of a young girl who was wearing on her
blouse the C.G.T. badge.

At STIRING-WENDEL,
children of 14 and 15 years old were arrested; they were only released 26 days
later and without having been tried.

At LENS, on October
19th, the police forced the Public Services to cut the electric
power, thus depriving maternity houses and hospitals of water.

At CREUTZWALD, on
October 20th, in Lisieux Street, tear gas bombs were thrown into
rooms occupied by children.

On the 23rd
October, at STIRING WENDEL, the old mother of Pierre Lorentz, and his wife who
was 8 and ½ months pregnant were beaten up.

At Carvin, on
October 28th, the police ill-treated young workers. A boy named
Matazak, barely 15 years old, was savagely beaten.

Other young workers named Henauty, Treanoy and Dujardin,
with machine guns pointing at their stomachs, were searched.

On the 30th October, at Lallaing (Nord) about 7p.m. in the “Printania Hotel”, the
C.R.S.fell upon customers with butt
blows, breaking down the doors, entering bedrooms, and upsetting a cradle
containing a 3 months old baby.

Considerable pressure
was exercised on foreign and North African workers to force them to resume
work.

On October 19th, in Mosellle, the C.R.S. invaded
the huts of North-African workers at Zimming
in Faulquemont. They attacked and
batoned the workers, destroyed the furniture, smashed in suitcases, and took
away North-Africans to the pits by threatening them with their firearms and
carrying out arbitrary arrests.

On October 20th, at Stiring (Moselle) the C.R.S. threw tear gas bombs into the huts of
the North Africans at 4 a.m. Without giving the latter time to dress, they took
them to the pits with machine-guns pointed at their backs.

On the 27th October, at Rosselmont (Moselle) the C.R.S. invaded the North-African workers
quarters at 3 a.m. and whipped the miners out of their beds in order to force
them to work.

On November 9th, at Lallaing. 500 gendarmes and C.R.S. surrounded the quarters
inhabited by foreign miners, threw out the families including half naked
children, in order to force their fathers to work.

On the 10th November at Carrmaux, foreign workers were thrashed and forced into
motor-lorries which took them away to work.

At Auchel, on
November 23rd, the Italian workers camps were invaded by the militia
who insulted and beat them, finally taking the miners away by force to work.

The Government called
in troops.

The Minister Jules Moch lined up war materials, tanks,
machine guns and automatic weapons. He used troops called back from the
Occupation Zone in Germany, and colonial troops from North and French West
Africa. On 22nd October, police forces were authorised to make use
of their arms.

On the previous day a miner named Barbier had already been
killed at St. Etienne.

On the 25th October tens of thousands of C.R.S.
and native Moroccan infantry, protected by tanks, attacked the Nord and
Pas-de-Calais pits.

On the 26th October at Ales with tanks lined up, armed forces attacked the miners with
canons and machine guns, injuring several miners and killing a worker named Max
Chaptal the father of two children. A nurse wearing the Red Cross armband was
wounded by a machine gun bullet.

But this bloody
repression had been, previously thoroughly prepared by the spread of false
news, lies of all kinds and by provocation. Several thousand C.R.S.,
gendarmes and troops with a considerable display of war material, camped on the
immediate outskirts of Ales and in
the very centre of the town, petrol dumps and various kinds of war material
were accumulated.

CAMPAIGN OF SLANDER AND LIES

Once more, the Government tried to make believe that the
strike was a political one, ordered by the “Cominform.”

Luckily, the common sense of the French population enabled
them to reject with contempt the use of lies as old as reaction itself. (Did
Louis Phillippe not attempt to make believe that the strike of Lyons silk-weavers
in 1831 was inspired by England?)

Then, Jules Moch and his friends in the Government, tried to
justify the police violence and the use of armed forces which they had ordered,
by pretending that it was a question of saving mining installations and of ensuring
“freedom to work”.

On this matter it is necessary to give a few details:
From the first day of the strike, on Oct. 4th, the National
Federation of Mineworkers, stated that the security of underground and surface
installations would be ensured. It stressed that the strike had been legally
decided upon following a free vote by secret ballot. Thus nothing could justify
the presence of police forces in the coal fields. It therefore called for their
withdrawal, specifying that the miners, being in need of all their forces in
order to resist police attacks, would not be able, if this withdrawal did not
take place, to continue to ensure the security of the installations.

The Government immediately tried to make use of this
statement, and, distorting the facts, asserted that in numerous pits, safety
measures were no longer being maintained.

However, on the 8th October, everywhere, except
in the Lorraine coal basin which was occupied by the C.R.S. and where entrance was forbidden to the
miners’ delegates, safety measures were ensured. All necessary measures had
been taken by the miners themselves in order to prevent any wreckage of installations
(turning over of machinery, caulking, etc.).

Between the 8th and 13th October, the
Government issued mobilisation orders, an illegal measure, and, through the
national leaders of “Force Ouvriere” and of the C.F.TC. [3]
(with whom it was still in contact), it published press communiques, aimed at
obtaining an increase in security measures, and thus beginning a resumption of
work.

This attempt failed miserably and on the 10th,
thanks to the resolute attitude of the miners, the illegal mobilisation order
was withdrawn.

The Government increased the police forces in the Lorraine
basin, gathered large forces in the immediate outskirts of the Nord and
Pas-de-Calais regions, ad multiplied incidents in order to find a justification
for intervention.

It was only on 18th October – it must not be
forgotten that the miner Jansek was
murdered on the 8th October at Merlebach-
that the National Federation of Mineworkers decideded, as a warning, to suspend
security measures for 24 hours.

The brutal intervention of police forces made it impossible
later on to maintain the security teams.

THEREFORE, IT WAS NOT BECAUSE SECURITY MEASURES WERE
ABANDONED THAT THE POLICE FORCES INTERVENED IN THE COAL BASINS BUT, ON THE
CONTRARY, IT WAS BECAUSE POLICE FORCES OCCUPIED THE PIT-HEADS THAT SECURITY
MEASURES WERE STOPPED.

*
**

In addition the rulers tried to distort the facts.
At the time of Jansek’s murder, on
October 8th at Merlebach (Moselle),
in an attempt to conceal the crime, the radio and the press, in obedience to
the Government, successively attributed his death to “being tramped on by the
crowd” (sic); and then to pneumonia. Finally, Jules Moch, assured the National
Assembly that Jansek died from heart
failure.

In the end, under Governmental pressure, the death certificate
of this murdered miner, as in the time of the Nazis, bore the phrase “death
from natural causes”.

At Creutzwald, a
second-lieutenant of the C.R.S. of Clermont,
stated that they had been sent to Moselle, because, it was said, the
population was Nazi.

True to his methods of provocation, used even before the
beginning of the strike, Jules Moch claimed that the C.R.S. had only used their
arms because the strikers had themselves fired. This only gave rise to a
statement of newspapermen who witnessed the shooting, the text of which is
given below:

“The undersigned
journalists protest against the written and broadcast information which tends
to deform the truth about the shooting at Firminy.

“They declare:
“1: that no shot was fired by demonstrators ;
“2: that the police force used its arms without warning.

“Anxious to fulfil
their role of supplying objective information they solemnly protest against any
other version of the events of October 21st.”

During the police repression, at Ales, on October 26th,
the Government asserted that the strikers had stolen goods, and ransacked food
stores, in that town. Jules Moch, in his speech to the Assembly on November 19th,
asserted that mining stores had been pillaged in the same way as he pretended
that, in the pits, engines had been mined and destroyed.

By its lies, the Government only made itself more hateful :
two statements were issued to the press, one by newspapermen, the other by
engineers who had both visited the pit installations, described by the
Government as having been “sabotaged”; these statements indicated that all the
engines were in working order and that no trace of sabotage could be seen.

All kinds of bluff
were used.

On November 11th, at Montcean, in order to increase the very small number of
strike-breakers who had resumed work, the whole staff of the apprenticeship
schools were sent to the mines and it was proclaimed everywhere that work was
being resumed.

All methods of
intimidation were used simultaneously.

ARBITRARY ARRESTS

The Government ordered the arrest of active trade unionists:
the best, as during the Nazi occupation, were sought in order to be thrown into
prison together with common criminals.

At Carvin, on October 29th, 20 people were
arrested; amongst them were Tsezefanlak, a former Auschwitz deported person;
Celine Commens, widow of a man shot
during the occupation; Jeanne Queva, wife of an ex-partisan (F.T.P.F.).

On the 5th November at Carvon (Ostricourt) Mrs. Driard a newspaper-seller and widow of a
man shot during the Resistance was arrested without any reason.

On the 9th November at Avion, the following were arrested: a miners’ delegate, from pit 7,
named Nizart, who was the first to go
down the pit when 8 workers were killed by a fire-damp explosion; Augustin Allard, assistant mayor of Avion, surface workers’ delegate,
ex-deportee: Florimond Surmont, former
“Force Ouvriere” administrator, who had rejoined the C.G.T.

The Government
re-opened the Doullens Camp, where during the war, French miners were detained
by the Nazis.

On the 10th November, at Grand-Combe (Gard): Mr Delenne,
Secretary of the local C.G.T. union, was arrested.

On the 13th November, Mrs. Theret, mother of 5 children
and 5 months pregnant (her last child not yet 1 year old) was dragged out of
bed at 4 a.m. and was only released at 10 p.m. after a thorough
cross-examination; courageously, she refused to answer.

On the 16th November, at Billy-Montigny (Pas-de-Calais). Robert Dorne, was taken to the
police station at No 10 pit. He was kept there without sleep or food for two
days. He was beaten, tortured and insulted. Covered with blood, he was tied to
a chair and shown as an example to those who were going to work.

At Carmaux, 5
Polish families were expelled in the middle of the night and thrown into
goods-trains.

At La Combelle (Pas-de-Calais)
as a meeting of the Strike Committee was breaking up, the police tried to
arrest a delegate named Allezard. His
comrades protested, but the militia appeared and beat an old moner named Charbonel aged 60 with rifle butts and
knocked him out. The miners were thrown into lorries, like cattle, together
with people who were peacefully playing cards in the Gras Café. Women who protested against these actions were pushed
into the lorry and taken to the pits, which had been transformed into veritable
prisons.

At Monceau, one of
our North-African comrades was arrested without any reason and left to the
brutality of the gendarmes who beat his naked body with straps, whips and
waistbelts for hours. For 24 hours he was left without any attention or food.
When he begged for a piece of bread, they brought him a crust smeared with
human excrement. Being unable to prefer any charge against him, he was released
in the afternoon at 4.p.m. after having been forced to wash up the mess tins of
the division.

On the 17th November, police dogs were used to
hunt 8 strikers.

At Courieres, on
the 18th November, the miners’ delegate from pit No 4, Francis Leblond, the first to go down to help his
comrades at the time of the catastrophe of April 19th 1948, was
arrested.

On the 19th
November, at Courrieres, the police, unable to find Jean Ville, Secretary of the local union,
arrested his wife and confined her in Bethune
goal.

At Guesnan (Nord)
30 strikers were arrested and ill-treated by the C.R.S.

On the 24th November, at Lessevale, at 4 .a.m., gendarmes and militia surrounded the miners’
quarter; supplied with lists of names they searched numerous houses and
especially the homes of miners who had been active patriots during the
occupation.

PRESSURE ON MAGISTRATES

AND

CONDEMNATION OF STRIKERS

Meanwhile, magistrates were given strict orders by the
Minister of Justice, Andre Marie, to give arrested strikers the maximum
penalties/ Each time a sentence seemed too light the Government lodged an
appeal.

In disregard of the constitutional principle of separating
the executive and legislative legal powers, the Government exercised a strict
control over the magistrates. As an example the Procurator of the Republic, in Bethune, Mr. Dorny, was reduced to a lower rank for having freed strikers who
had been illegally arrested.

The decree of September 18th, had already
withdrawn the administration of accidents and illness from the Social Security
system.

In order to force the penniless miners to resume their work,
the Minister Lacoste, arbitrarily suppressed family allowance payments to wives
and children of striking miners.

Meanwhile, combining provocative and harassing measures his
colleague, Jules Moch, presented a Bill establishing a credit of 50 million francs
from the Ministry of the Interior budget “to make up losses of miners having
suffered in exercising freedom to work” (sic).

Draft of Exceptional Laws

Finally, the Government, having already violated the
fundamental laws of the Republic and undoubtedly desirous of continuing its
policy of enslaving the working class with the appearance of legality,
presented a Bill, heavy with consequences, to the Assembly.

Among other things, this Bill is intended to penalize
“concerted cessation of professional activities, or misuse of the right to
strike by diverting its professional or social purpose”; it would permit any
action or any systematic abstention aiming at or resulting in active or passive
sabotage, being penalised.

It is pure and simple abolition of the right to strike.
Thus, the Government is attempting to suppress a right written into the
Constitution, although it has no power to altar the Constitution by means of a
simple vote of the National Assembly.

Moreover, this Bill aims at penalising all those who, by
means of their writings or their words, might encourage such action. Apart from
the fact that this Bill violate freedom of expression, it would permit the
exclusion of active trade unionists from the French community (the draft
eventually provides for banishment from any stated region or town and the
suppression of civil rights).

It is essential to
understand what happens in a country when rulers attempt to smash trade union
organisations: it slides by slow degrees towards neo-fascism.

Result of the anti-national

policy of the government

By its anti-working class and anti-national policy, the
Government has dealt a severe blow at our economy. It has thus given
satisfaction to the wishes of American imperialists who, through the operation
of the Marshall Plan in France, are trying to achieve the same results.

As a result of coal shortage in power plants, the Government
drew liberally upon the hydraulic reserves. Before the strike the dams were 70%
full; on the 15th November they were only 47% full, despite
favourable weather. It will be possible to judge of the seriousness of our
hydro-electrical situation when it is understood that the situation is
considered critical at the beginning of a winter when the dams are less than
55% full.

In addition, cuts in industrial current, which have reduced
by 33% the industrial quota of electric power, led to a reduction of the output
in numerous industrial fields.

According to statements made to the National Assembly by the
Minister Lacoste himself, the electro-chemical and electro metallurgic
industries were severely hit. The production of carbide which amounted to 3.000
tons per month, iron alloys which amounted to 5.600 tons, and zinc which
totalled 1.600 tons has been reduced to nothing. After a 4 weeks complete
strike in the mines, the whole of the industrial output in the North has slowed
down.

From October 4th until November 29th,
the coal output losses were about 5.680.000 tons.

If the fact is taken into consideration that all the workers
could not resume their work on the 29th November because of
governmental measures of repression against the miners, the total loss of coal
can be evaluated at about 6.000.000 tons, which equals at market value, 21
billion francs.

If the Government had satisfied the just demands of the
miners, the additional expense would only have amounted to 2 billion francs per
month.

However, far from drawing the necessary conclusion the
Government, on the contrary, attempted to break the strike by placing an order
with the United States for 2 million or even 3 million additional tons of coal.
It is notorious that American coal, very poor in quality, containing, according
to the manufacturers using it, 1/3 earth and stones, costs 2.000 frs more per
ton, than French coal.

Besides, the Government, a few days before the devaluation
of the franc in relation to the dollar, had-under the pretext of technical
justifications- taken care, once more, to increase the price of French coal, in
order to reduce a part of the difference between the price of America and
French coal.

The Minister Lacoste has
asserted that these additional purchases of American coal would be made at the
expense of other essential purchases for our economy, such as cotton, petrol
and fats. The Minister had little time to weep: on the 15th November
the American Government made it known it was granting the French Government a
first instalment of additional credits for coal purchases.

If the Government imports 3 million tons of additional coal
(supposing it can) even if those credits are part of the Marshall Plan, it will
have to pay to the account of “American Aid” in francs, the difference existing
between the cost price of American coal (that is to say5.500 frs) and the
domestic selling price of French coal (that is to say 3.500 frs) which in fact
represents a subsidy of 6 billion francs.

*
**

In its fight against the
miners the Government used all the means in its power, hoping to hit at the
whole working class by breaking the miners’ strike.

It has sabotaged
public finance and our national economy.

It has followed a
policy of political adventure the essential aim of which was, in disregard of
the fundamental interests of the nation, the wiping out of the workers’
organisations.

[1]
The basic minimum wage in France is subject to regional percentage reductions
according to the area and varies from 5% to 25%, the Paris region being 100.

[2]
Republican Security Companies. A national armed force under the direct control
of the Minister of Interior used to put down so-called civil disturbances.